Deep Dark Mire (An FBI Romance Thriller ~ book four) (80 page)

“I’m sorry
, Elizabeth.”

Somehow
, she didn’t think she really was all that remorseful. Who wouldn’t like to shoot the woman that was now sleeping with the man you once loved? Elizabeth prayed the vest held up, or she just gambled away her life and the hearts of the two men she loved. There wasn’t much time, and she knew it.

Desdemona closed her eyes.

“Look at me, Desdemona!” She needed her to aim. “If you’re going to shoot someone, you look them in the God damned eyes!” she yelled.

“I’m sorry.”

Then time stood still as the sound echoed through the swamp, scaring everything in it that was alive.

                                *   *   *

The four
of them arrived in time to watch Elizabeth hand her gun over to Desdemona, and that sick feeling overwhelmed each one of them. An agent or officer of the law never handed over their gun unless it was last case scenario. It likely meant one thing.

Death.

“It’s okay, Desdemona won’t shoot her,” said Christensen, sure of herself. “Now, she can turn the gun on him and save herself.”

All three men looked over at her
like she hadn’t a clue.

Elizabeth started talking and they all went silent. Each one had a look of horror on their face
, as they listened to the woman taunt Doctor Adare.

“Oh Jesus,” muttered Whitefox, when he heard the ‘good in bed part’.

“I’m killing my wife myself, if I get her back alive,” Blackhawk stated, emphatically.

“Oh shit, Desdemona’s raising the gun,” whispered Whitefox.
“She really wouldn’t shoot her, right? I mean Desdemona is smart enough to know that Elizabeth only gave her the gun to kill her brother.”

When the gunshot filled the air, and Elizabeth Blackhawk’s body rocked backwards, the men lunged forward to save the woman they loved.

Obviously, Desdemona didn’t quite understand the plan, and she actually took the shot.

“Elizabeth!” both men screamed.

But they knew it was probably too late to save the woman they loved.

                                *   *   *

Desdemona stared at her and pulled the trigger. The horrible sound reverberated through the woods and hurt her ears. She watched the shock at the way Elizabeth’s body jerked sickly backwards into the water in slow motion. Just before the woman was completely submerged in the water, she heard the scream of her name.

Vincent Delray lurched at the sound
from the shadows, momentarily releasing his grasp on his sister, in surprise. Desdemona stumbled, as the gun fell from her hand into the mire.

Before
Vincent could get his bearings and grab Desdemona again to use as a shield, Elizabeth popped up from her watery grave and fired the gun in her hand. Thankfully, she had taken Doctor Adare’s gun earlier and wasn’t submerged long. One shot was all she had, and it was straight and true, despite the pain she was feeling.

The gun and vest may have just spared her life, but it meant the end to Desdemona’s brother.

Vincent Delray fell backwards into the water and to his death. Bullet met head
, and death happened instantly. The bullet did the same thing that his father’s had done. A spray of brains and blood hit the rock cliff behind him.

Elizabeth staggered forward to the rocky ground
, as the men ran from the trees behind her. When she went to her knees, she was having a hard time taking a breath. The bullet hit the vest and the wind was knocked out of her.

“Holy shit,” she muttered
, struggling to yank the pullover off of her body and trying to breathe again under the suddenly oppressive weight of the Kevlar.

Ethan reached her first,
helping her free from the weight. “Elizabeth, where are you hit?”

“Center. O
f. My. Chest,” she gasped between breaths.

Callen fell to his knees beside her and helped his brother free her of the
vest. “You’re going to be the death of us! Jesus, Lyzee!” He ran his hands across her chest to make sure there wasn’t any blood.

She nodded still unable to breath. 

“You vested up! Thank God for that,” Blackhawk said, laying her on her back and staring down into her eyes.

“
In the dream,” she whispered. “Granddad told me I was going to be seeing him again if I didn’t.”

It was all she had to say, both men understood.

Julian checked Desdemona for any wounds other than the knife to her throat.

“I’m fine,” she whispered, watching Elizabeth fight for air. “I don’t know how she pulled that off.”

“She double plated the vest,” said Tori Christensen, but still she was impressed that the woman took a bullet that close and didn’t flinch. “Balls of steel,” she said, grinning at her boss. “That was either the bravest or stupidest thing I’ve ever seen done.”

Both men answered for her
, “Stupidest.”

“I’m sorry I shot you, Elizabeth.”

Whitefox turned on Desdemona before Elizabeth could answer. “What the hell were you thinking? You actually pulled the trigger?” He was furious. “You could have killed her!”

“She wanted me to shoot her!”

“Jesus Christ, Desdemona! You shot her in the fucking chest, when you could have turned the gun around and killed him. What if that bullet penetrated? Then what?” Callen was filled with fury.

Desdemona felt the rage coming over everything she’d been through. “I could have been killed too!”

Whitefox just stared at her, silently. It spoke volumes.

The meaning of his silence was obvious
to everyone watching this all unfold.

“You think that was easy?” she demanded. “I had a large knife pressed to my throat! I get you’re worried about your…girlfriend, lover, bed buddy, or whatever the hell you call her, but she isn't the only one that could have died. I bleed too, Callen. I get that your goal is to save your precious Elizabeth, but as the spider just proved, she’s got bigger balls than anyone and more lives than a fucking cat.”

Whitefox was livid.

Blackhawk was about to intervene, but his wife touched his arm, and when their eyes met, they shared what they both knew. Callen and Desdemona needed this final confrontation to get past everything that happened between them. When it was all out in the open, they’d help him heal.

“
You should probably be glad she has more lives than a fucking cat, since she just burned three on you in the last year! No sane person shoots another in the vest. You could have taken him out yourself. I’m sick of her having to wear the blood for everyone.”

“I’m not fucking Elizabeth Blackhawk. I get it!
I don’t have the balls to turn a gun on a man behind me and kill him while a knife is at my throat. You’re madly in love with her, and she rises and sets on your world. She told me to fucking shoot her, and who am I to ignore her Majesty the Goddess Elizabeth’s demands!”

“You're crossing the line, Desdemona,” he said back. The only difference was his voice was now controlled.

“She told me to shoot her, and you know what? I’m honest enough to admit I enjoyed every damn second of it. It felt good to shoot the woman that destroyed my life.”

“Destroyed your life? Are you criminally insane? She just saved your damn life.” Maybe she was crazy, look at her father and brother.

“Great! She’ll get a fucking parade, I’m sure.”

Callen was sick to his stomach. “Unbelievable.” Now he turned his back to her. There was nothing more to say at this point. Anything else would just be useless, because as far as Desdemona was concerned, she was the victim. He doubted she’d realize it took two people to collapse what they had.
Her bitterness and his love of another woman were equally guilty.

“You ruined
me, Callen. I did perfectly fine not knowing what love was, and then you came storming into my life with your back up,” she pointed at the Blackhawks and continued, “and you made me love you. Then you walked away from me for a married woman. Fine, great, wonderful! I wish you both many happy years together, but Karma is a bitch, and honestly, the day she breaks your heart, don’t you dare come crying to me. I’ll enjoy the day you ruin her life, and it’s coming because you're a disaster to women everywhere. Maybe I wasn’t the unlovable one in the relationship after all,” she spit out, viciously. “Chances are it was you that was the problem from the minute you were born.”

Elizabeth struggled to stand up
and go to his rescue, but her husband kept her down. Callen needed to get this all out, purge it here so they could go home and heal.

“
Yeah, Desdemona. It was all me. I’m very unlovable, but you knew that, didn’t you?” There was no love left in him at all for the woman. Everything she just dumped on him showed there never was love, only lust. Love didn’t twist the knife in hopes of hurting the other person. She knew his past and went in for the kill. The fear that his mother never wanted him because he wasn’t worthy of love, all the women he slept with just to feel, and she used it as a weapon.

“
I get it. You're a Blackhawk and that’s all that ever mattered. The three of you are one unified front against the world and everyone in it. Congrats! I hope the sex is that fucking fantastic that you were willing to sell your soul to be part of her collection of sex toys.”

“Enough! Just stop!” he demanded, feeling the need to hurt something or someone.

“What happens when she’s bored with her collection of brothers? You’re the first one to go.”

Elizabeth pulled away from her husband
, stepping into the fray when it went too far. “Shut the hell up, Desdemona, or I’ll be putting you in that grave myself,” she snapped. The pain in her chest was hard to deal with, but the pain in her heart for Callen was worse. “You’ve said enough! We get it; you’re hurt and trying to reciprocate. The pity party at Callen’s expense is fucking over.”

“Whatever you wish,
your Majesty.”

The look between the two said it all. There was no going back to anything before that moment. The last tenuous ties to anything civil were sever
ed in that moment.

Desdemona started through the swamp, and Julian and Tori followed when Blackhawk motioned for them to follow.

“Callen?” Elizabeth said softly, touching his arm.

He turned around and faced his family. His face was completely
blank and he held his composure, but underneath his heart was ripped apart. His greatest fear was just handed to him. One day they’d push him away and he’d be expendable. After all, he wasn’t her husband and he wasn’t worthy of love ever.

“I’m fine, Lyzee. Let’s get you out of here,” he said, picking her up in his arms.

Elizabeth stared over his shoulder into her husband’s eyes, and knew there was going to be backlash. It was brewing. Callen had shut himself down, even to her, and that was a horrible sign.

Now
, they just had to wait and pray that the man they both loved wouldn’t push them away. It would be a huge mistake for them all, if he listened to Desdemona’s words.

“I love you, Callen,” she whispered in his ear.
“You aren’t my sex toy.” Elizabeth laid her head on his shoulder and gently kissed his neck, trying to offer him love.

He simply nodded
, too upset to speak. If he said the words back to Elizabeth, he’d cry and beg her to give him something more permanent. To prove to him that he wasn’t expendable, and to give him a sign that he meant more than what Desdemona Adare just threw out at him. The seeds of doubt were already planted and starting to sprout.

Elizabeth
did rise and set on his world, and she was all he ever wanted, but where did he fit? Would she get bored?

The v
icious angry words replayed in his mind and added more doubt to the pain he was feeling. What if he did ruin her life?

If that happened he’d die inside. The two people he loved more than anything in the world were right there
, and if he crushed them, he couldn’t go on.

“It’s not true what she said,” Elizabeth whispered.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” he replied, pushing the conversation from his mind. Now wasn’t the time or the place, and they all knew it.

Now
, they had a mess to clean up in the town.

There were sirens in the distance
, and the rest of the Delray family was going to be waiting outside the swamp to find out what the hell had been going on with their brother. Fortunately, Elizabeth heard Vincent Delray’s confession and that was more than sufficient.

The man admitted to killing his sister and her unborn child. Today this one went down in the records as closed.

They found a killer.

And s
aved a woman’s life.